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‘Lit’ Is Over, and Other Things You Can Pay Teens to Teach You

When CJ DeLeo founded his file label, Right Coast Music, he knew that accomplishing teens might be vital to its fulfillment. But in place of thumbing through Instagram to determine out how to talk to ten- to 21-yr-olds — or, Generation Z, as the demographic after millennials is from time to time referred to as — he reached out to JÜV Consulting.

The business enterprise is considered one of the numerous new advertising firms that remove darkness from the internal workings of children in recent times without condescending to them. How? JÜV Consulting is staffed absolutely with the aid of younger folks who range in age from 14 to 22.

“I changed into without a doubt pretty skeptical once I determined out they were young adults,” Mr. DeLeo admitted. “After the first call, they blew me away. They should stroll into a normal commercial enterprise placing with humans in their 30s and 40s and be completely at ease. They are residing the demographic we had been concentrated on.”

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That’s the complete point. The personnel at JÜV (named for an aggregate of the phrases “juvenile” and “rejuvenate”) are out to teach brands, businesses, and nonprofits what it way to be a younger person with the aid of commodifying their own first-class time.

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JÜV’s innovative director, Nico Trigo, 18, left, and the director of advertising and marketing Jacob Chang, 19, in their shared bedroom.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times
“Don’t talk about teenagers, talk to teenagers,” said Ziad Ahmed, 19, JÜV’s C.E.O. And a rising sophomore at Yale (principal not sure). He co-based the consultancy company in 2016 with Nick Jain, 19, the corporation’s C.O.O. And a growing sophomore at Princeton and Melinda Guo, 19, who goes to Stanford and serves as a member of the board.

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This summertime, Mr. Ahmed, Mr. Jain and 6 other contributors of the government team lived and labored in a loft in Brooklyn, wherein they would meet with customers and then simply hang out. In addition to an executive group, JÜV has five senior companions, 15 junior companions and ninety consultants on staff, all of whom (it must possibly go without saying) is paid. Their de facto informants encompass pals — and buddies of pals — from around the arena.

“Gen Z moves rapid, and so do the trends,” stated Jacob Chang, 19, JÜV’s director of marketing, and a growing sophomore at the University of Chicago. A big a part of his activity is flagging memes and anything is catching viral hearth on Twitter. “There are a lot of things coming inside and outside of style,” he said.

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JÜV’s co-founder and leader executive, Ziad Ahmed, 19, confers with Shaina Zafar, 18, the organization’s leader of the staff.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times
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For example, “‘Lit’ isn’t truly cool anymore,” said Mr. Ahmed. “Even even though a variety of us nevertheless colloquially use it, if a business enterprise did it, that’s cringe. Because lit, our mother, and father now are aware of it.” On the alternative hand, he stated, “if you had been to, in a tweet, use a phrase like ‘hella,’ no person’s going to be like, that so cringes because that’s just how we kind.”

“Generation Z is Generation We,” stated Mr. Chang. “We love sharing experiences with each other. And that’s why memes have taken off, as it’s like the quick, shared enjoy of our humor.”

To be clean, the JÜV group name callings on the idea of a “Gen Z professional”: every person who pretends to speak for a generation, whether or not that’s a peer or grownup. They aren’t a research company, they are saying. They aren’t a focal point group. They are, in line with Emma Himes, JÜV’s 18-yr-old director of improvement and a rising sophomore on the University of Pennsylvania, “a truly numerous group of skilled teen experts who will let you.”

That approach has earned them paintings with huge-name clients like Viacom and Edelman, as properly consulting gigs with smaller nonprofits and organizations. One of the employer’s most appealing offerings is assisting clients to navigate social media to avoid the forms of pitfalls that might lead them to notorious in a single day — or canceled, within the lingo of the day.

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JÜV teenagers, at work and at play.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times
“We grew up on social media. That’s a form of the way we describe it to customers,” Mr. Jain said. “The vast majority people are fluent in it.”

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Before the executive group disbanded this month to go returned to their faculties (in which they may work remotely on a part-time foundation in the course of the faculty 12 months), they could host customers at their loft in Clinton Hill.

Space seemed like a hangout spot from a high schooler’s desires. There become an extended desk inside the middle of the light-filled room, wherein the crew plugged of their earbuds and set to work, and a cozy sectional within the nook, wherein the group might every so often prevent working long enough to observe The Bachelorette. There have been walls included in Post-it notes (both to arrange paintings tasks and delegate chores some of the roommates), and pool floats have been flung approximately space as an ornament.

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CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times
For food, JÜV employees ate quite a few pasta. They might accumulate together at a high kitchen desk, debating the efficacy of subway advertisements and whether Kim and Kanye would possibly divorce with identical ardor.

Liz Toney, a JÜV purchaser who is the top of brand and engagement for a social media start-up launching this fall, described a standard meeting:

“One minute there are Nerfs, card video games, and inflatable pool toys,” she stated. “The next our laptops are out and it’s targeted notable communique and two hours of thrilling brainstorming.”

For a room full of college students who have but to experience the existential dread of graduating? Sounds approximately right.